Recounting the terrible evening, Ms Doyle said her husband was run down just 100 yards from their home.

“The guards had been to our house but I had been out… later they drove me to the hospital.

“It was the same room my mother had been in in 2014, she had had a brain bleed and I had been told there was no chance, but she miraculously survived after four months.

“So I thought it can’t be all that bad. It’s a good omen [that Willie was in the room].

“I really thought he’d pull through.

“He had come through cancer and chemotherapy in 2008 and 2009.”

Ms Doyle continued, saying that her husband had had a shopping list of items he needed to get for a Christmas dinner he was preparing to cook for those in need on Christmas Day and had left the pub early in order to make preparations.

Paying tribute to her friends, family and work colleagues for their support she spoke of her hope that Willie would be remembered locally as a man passionate about his community.

She said his surname – Crowley – translates to Irish as ‘local warrior’.

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